HIS456 Nazi Germany University of Southern Mississippi, Fall 2009 MWF 1:00-1:50, LAB 101 Professor Jeff Bowersox Office: LAB 454 Email:
[email protected] Phone: 601 266 4519 Office Hours: M-W 10:30-12:00 or by appointment Course website: http://ocean.otr.usm.edu/~w783828/Jeff_Bowersox/Nazi_Germany.html Course Description: In this seminar course, students will grapple with the significance of the Nazi era for modern German history. The course‘s topics will include the origins of the movement, its growth and rise to power in the unstable environment of the Weimar Republic, the National Socialists‘ utopian vision and their various efforts to implement it, and the relationship between state and society. Students will also consider the nature of everyday life in the Third Reich, the persecution of Jews and other minorities, the uses of terror, the horrific culmination of the regime‘s ideological goals in the Second World War and the Holocaust, and, finally, the memory of the period. Class meetings will focus on intensive discussion of assigned readings and various primary sources, including texts, images, films, and a graphic novel. Course objectives Upon completion of this course, students will be able to explain the rise of Hitler‘s Nazi party to power, the basis of its legitimacy as a government, the relationship between state and society, and the various and murderous efforts to purify and strengthen the Volksgemeinschaft. discuss, with sophistication and in public, major debates surrounding the Nazi era. carry out analytical research projects based on both primary and secondary sources. Course materials Required course materials can be found at Campus Book Mart (2906 Hardy – next to Javawerks) and the Barnes & Noble on campus.